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Explaining COMC Return Policies

Hello Folks, and happy Monday! There has been some recent discussion concerning COMC’s return policies, so we felt it would be appropriate to take some time to clarify, give explanations, and help answer questions.

Return Policy – Buyers

On the buyer’s end, we have what we consider to be the best return policy in our industry. The buyer has 14 days from the time the item ships to examine their item and, if they don’t want it, have it returned to us. This very easy and open return policy encourages buyer confidence and security. This in turn stimulates more sales, which is better for everyone.

Return Policy – Sellers

Regarding our sellers, COMC operates under a very simple principle: We don’t want our sellers to be any worse off than they were before they made the sale. To that end, we work to shield sellers from various costs associated with buyer returns as well as from having to do any of the more aggravating, associated tasks. We handle the shipping and receiving, the customer service, our ID teams confirm that the item is the original, and we do the re-processing. When an item is returned, we carefully and thoroughly examine it to ensure it is the exact card in the exact condition as the one originally sent to us. Should we verify that it is, we reverse the purchase and return the item to the last seller’s account within 45 days of the sale. If it is not possible to have the item back into the seller’s account within 45 days, we will credit the seller a restocking fee equal to 10% of the original sales price.

For instance, if I had a $1 return that didn’t make it into my account until after 45 days had passed, I would receive a $0.10 credit. If a returned item is lost, damaged, or different, we absorb the cost of that item. We never return damaged or different items to our sellers’ accounts. In the event that the item is returned in worse condition than when it was sent out, we cover the cost of the card, so sellers don’t even need to worry about shipping wear and tear.

We also vigilantly monitor returns to insure buyers are not trying to pull any scams. Should we notice suspicious activity, we act immediately to protect sellers and COMC. We track and block all buyers and users who are using the site maliciously. As this is a service we provide, it is one less thing for our sellers to worry about.

Who has time do deal with returns…. oh wait…we do.

Explanation & History

Sellers may have noticed this change as we’ve grown as a site and as we’ve partnered with Amazon. When COMC was a smaller company, we got very few, if any, returns in a given month. As such, it was much more feasible for COMC to absorb the cost of these cards and move on. As COMC continued to grow, and eventually synced up with Amazon.com, we were able to provide our sellers a MUCH broader audience. However, this also brought, not only an increasing numbers of returns, but also a greater potential for fraud against which we need to protect all parties.

A good example of why we cannot absorb all returns ourselves is it would be easy for someone to buy an N/A BV card for a dollar, price it at $1000, and then have his friend buy it and return it for instant profit at our expense. No business could continue to operate absorbing loss blindly, so we must use discretion and try to create sensible policies that protect all our customers – buyers and sellers – as effectively as we can while still making sure that COMC has a solid foundation.

Additionally, once we teamed with Amazon, our number of returns increased dramatically. Amazon’s model makes it so easy for people to buy and sell on their site that sometimes you can even make a purchase without meaning to. Amazon is designed this way.

We Care About Your Satisfaction

We hope that this better explains our policy moving forward, and helps to better explain exactly what we want to do for you in these regards. If you have any other questions about our Return Policy, please contact our Customer Support folks via Email, or give us a call at 1-800-517-3540.

45 thoughts on “Explaining COMC Return Policies”

Well, let the COMC price fixing and manipulating begin! This is bad news for sellers! If a buyer buys a hot card during the playoffs and then decides to return it when he can’t flip it on eBay… He just returns it to COMC and the seller is screwed. It’s only a matter of months before COMC decides to not protect sellers against fraudulent chargebacks, and then it has no leg up on eBay at all.

Hi, glen87. We’re always wanting to hear feedback and constructive ideas. We’ve tried to design our policies with our community in mind, and many great solutions have come organically from our users. Not allowing any returns would certainly prevent COMC losing money to buyer fraud, but it would probably also cause a decline in sales for all sellers. I suspect people would be more hesitant about shopping at a store that had a “no returns” policy, online or anywhere else. Do you have any thoughts on how we could still make buying on the site a safe experience for buyers while still maintaining a “no returns” policy?
Thanks very much,
Jeremy

one of your big selling points (at least you advertise it a lot) is the card being purchased is scanned front and back, and is available in a large size. with that in mind, a buyer is seeing exactly what they are purchasing. buyers remorse, or a failed attempt to flip the card elsewhere would appear (on the surface) to be the biggest cause for returns.

No returns at any time for any reason. Cards have been inspected when submitted so they should have no damage. Scans are very clear and able to be zoomed in on. There is absolutely no reason a return should ever happen outside of damge in shipping which is a shipping claim. I hope you all are listening to what people are saying.

From an international buyers aspect, two weeks is not enough time since of the 24 orders I have received, not one has taken less then 3 weeks to arrive and usually are closer to a month, so throw the two weeks out the window. Fortunately, I’ve never had a reason for a return.

Hi, Brian from Canada. The policy quoted above is specific to domestic orders. We definitely understand that two weeks isn’t always realistic for international shipments (though our new Canadian location should begin to ease that issue soon for our northern neighbors). For international packages we tend to operate on a case-by-case basis since international returns are very uncommon.
Thanks!
Jeremy

I bought 2 cards, and asked for shipment on February 11th, and they still haven’t arrived here yet, so obviously the new Canadian location is not helping with shipping times. I’ve shipped packages from here regular mail to Florida that got there in 4 days, and 6 days to California, so not sure why it would take over 3 weeks within Canada?

Troy – I just took a look at the files and your order left our Canadian warehouse on February 20th. I really wish I knew why orders from the Canadian warehouse are taking so long to get to our Canadian customers. I do apologize for any delays. If it takes much longer, please email me at Staff@comc.com.

I got an email notice on the 12th of February cards have been packaged, and another one on February 17th they have been mailed, so something is definitely not right at that location. It shouldn’t take 5 days to mail after packaging, but that was not the truth either if you say it left on the 20th. Not very pleased that my order sat for 8 days before it got shipped. Still not here yet, and it was suppose to be for a member on a message board who did something nice for me. Definitely not an isolated incident, because they other couple times took way longer than normal to get here, whis is a bit disappointing.

Hi, Sorry for the confusion, that was bad communication on my part. The order was packaged on the 12th, it left our US warehouse on the 17th to go to the Canadian warehouse – then it left Burnaby on the 20th.

We’re aware of the issues of shipping delays once packages leave the Canadian warehouse, and we’re looking into our options to try and improve our service there.

You stated what the problem is in your reply. it sat in your warehouse for 5 days after packaging. Then 3 days to ship to Canada warehouse, where it likely sat again for days. Even if it gets here on Wednesday, that’s a month since purchase. I’d love to use your site more often, but I think I’ll wait until you get the shipping times figured out. As for selling, I don`t think I`d want my name associated with a one month turnaround on buyer purchases, so I will stick to selling on ebay for now.

We’re not at a place where we can ship cards to Canada on a daily basis (yet) so shipments to the Canadian warehouse, that are then sent out to our Canadian customers, occur less frequently. If this order had been for a US address, it wouldn’t have been in the warehouse for 5 days.

We’re working on improving things, and we still think that this is better than shipping orders directly from the US warehouse, only to see packages get stuck in Customs red-tape, where packages get delayed for weeks and end up costing our customers extra money in duties and fees.

But Moe, on Wednesday it will be one month since I paid for my order. Best case is I get it Monday. How exactly is that better than sending it directly from the USA? Not everything shipped to Canada gets stuck at customs, and in fact I’ve been told sports cards are not subject too any duty, or custom fees up till a certain amount. I sell on ebay, and live an hour north of Toronto. My packages go to the post office, then to a sorting plant in Toronto, then to a sorting plant in Chicago, then to the local city, and to their local post office out for delivery. How can it be possible to do all that, and get my package to Florida, yet 4 weeks has gone by, and I’m still waiting on mine from your location. Look, I’m not normally in a hurry to get stuff, but in this particular instance, these two cards were to be a gift for someone who sent me a bunch of free graded cards from their company. Not only will the wait time have been almost a month, I still have to send these back to the states when they arrive. I’m hugely disappointed.

We’ve seen orders take up to 2 months to get to Canada. And, it’s true that smaller orders can get through without any customs/duties fees. But, I can’t explain how the postal service works, in that some packages arrive sooner than others. All we can control is when the cards leave our warehouse.

In the future, if you wish to send cards to someone in the states, you can use their address as the “Ship to” address, when you request a shipment.

It’s okay, Moe. I’m still gonna buy stuff from your site, like I said earlier wait times usually aren’t that big a deal, just this time I needed it quickly, but had I of known you can have it shipped to another address, then things would have worked out perfect. Thanks for letting me know of this option. Have a great weekend.

This may have been mentioned elsewhere, but for returns, it should not be passed onto the seller’s after a return is made. In the unique case of this site, the shipment is being made by you guys, and the return is being processed by you. If any cards are returned undamaged, it means they didn’t want the card, or it lost value. We should not have to eat that. Perhaps another COMC account could be set up and maintained by COMC itself to resell any of these “rare” returns that turn out to be in their exact condition. That way you are not out the full amount of money, we don’t have to be worried about returns, and you can possibly sell the card for the same amount, or maybe sometimes more, than originally refunded.

I love using the site, but changes like this make the site closer to eBay policies, and the reason I (and many others) sell so much on this site is because of the ease of selling and difference from eBay.

just a question i like to flip cards as it gives me something to do when i’m bored so any cash i get from selling goes to more cards as soon as i get it …..what happens when i get a return and no credit ….just wondering

I think the return policy is fine and have no problems with it. It does reassure the buyer of a safe buying experience and in the unlikely event they are unhappy, a refund will be in order. Most people avoid returns anyways because of the hassle and time involved, in this case: contact COMC, probably get an RMA #, package the card back up, go the post office and mail it back.

I think it depends on the what the price of the card is too, if you buy a $5 card and you’re not happy with it, no big deal, just send it in with your next batch of cards and re-sell it. Now if it’s a $100 card, and maybe you see something that wasn’t evident on the front/back scan, then that is a different situation and would warrant a more justifiable return.

Certain buyers can be fastidious, but as long as they don’t become habitual returners of cards, the current return policy should be fine.

The only thing I would like to know from a seller standpoint, more of a curiosity and maybe this goes against the “open” return policy is, why was the card being returned? Buyer remorse? Less than expected condition? Changed mind? I’m sure the actual COMC buyer would be kept confidential from the seller, if they paid full asking price for the card. However, if an offer was made on the card, the seller would have a record of who bought it.

I had my first card returned to me this past week. So what. I have sold nearly 8000 cards since I joined COMC. I haven’t had to pack any of those orders. I haven’t had to wait for Paypal payments to clear. I realize that there is a risk with hot cards that stop being hot. Jeremy Lin comes to mind. But overall, this site is a winner.

Not at ALL a fan of this… When I sell a card here I assume that the money given to me by COMC is mine to spend. For me to then spend that money on another card only to have a surprise return that puts my account in the red is not appropriate.

And as others mentioned…manipulation is very easy with a 14 day window.

One of the reasons we pay the fees we do to sell here was because of the return protection. I would have to be a large volume vintage seller here.

If ANYTHING perhaps this change should only be made for sellers who cross sell to Amazon…at which point we would simply turn off that feature.

Lots of good changes recently guys….this is not one of them…not while the other fees have gone steadily up over the last year.

Since you want suggestions…. Have an icon…RETURNABLE / NOT RETURNABLE
Sellers can decide if cards in their port are eligible for returns.

Again…if you sell on Amazon you have to accept returns. Therefore this option would not be available if you list on Amazon. And it would be a port wide decision. No hand picking. Either you accept returns on all or none. But I am sure someone doesn’t want to sell a Ty Cobb for $1000, get their $800 mailed to them only to find their account in the red 30 days later…
Just not a good idea guys….

I like the switch idea. Good thinking boss. I don’t sell on amazon already because of there return policy. I have to say when COMC announced the amazon thing I was excited but now it seems as though COMC may want to drop Amazon.

That card not available for return better be really, really cheap or I’m not interested in buying it from you. I can see a lot of business going down the drain, especially high priced cards.
Just not a good idea, guys….

we are entrusting our cards to you to sell for us. how can you 100% guarantee the card being returned (mainly for non serial numbered cards) is the one you actually mailed out? once the card is deemed “sold” from a sellers port, it should then become property of COMC. if there was damage on the card prior to be sending out, why was the damage not noted? why was a damaged card allowed to be sold? why was a damaged card even allowed to be posted for sale, and not returned to the owner? if a buyer returns a damaged card (that was not previously damaged), why should the original owner get stuck with it since it was obviously damaged while in COMC’s control.

up to 45 days to get credit for a returned card is ridiculous! let’s say, i just decided to sell everything, cash out, and decide to get out of the card selling business. now 6 weeks later (after not even logging into COMC – since i am no longer selling), i get an email saying my account has been credited and i now have a returned card in my portfolio? what now? i am/was done with selling, so what do i do with the returned card.

as previously asked, what will keep people from buying cards (kaepernick for example before the super bowl) and then returning them once the team loses? what about people that try and sell the cards on ebay for a week, can’t sell it, so they return it?

i appreciate the responses, but there many questions here that need to be answered

Here is one….
I know of a customer of ours who buys cards here and only gets them shipped every couple of months….are you saying 10 weeks after a sale when the buyer gets the cards shipped…and another 10 days later when you get them back…so 11+ weeks later you are going to force a return on a seller? Or are these returns only for cards purchased and shipped right away?

was just about to post a similar notion. i think some of the concern the time frame. a seller could potentially not know for months that a card is being returned. i have several cards (that i plan to have shipped to me – not being flipped) which i purchased on march 31st. nearly 3 months ago. i usually get shipments just 1-2 times per year, so those cards may not even be shipped to me until september or october (lets say sept 1st). i would receive the card approx sept 8th or 9th, have up to 14 days to return. so return on september 23rd, arrives back at COMC around september 30th. now it may take up to 45 days for the seller to get credited (based on imformation posted above). that would put us around november 15th for a card purchased on march 31st. that is problematic to me as a seller.

just checked, my first shipment in 2012 was not until october 2 (10 months into the year). i have taken advantage of a couple of shipping specials since then, but i did go at least 10 months (did not keep records of shipment dates in 2011) without a shipment. that case would mean nearly a year for the seller to be notified of a return.

update – 10/2/12 was not my first shipment in 2012. i had a single card shipped earlier as well as a package with 10 cards i was looking to sell elsewhere. 10/2 was my first “normal” shipment in 2012 of cards i just wanted for my collection. previous shipment was 11/27/2011. on 11/28/2011, i purchased 3 cards that were included in the 10/2/12 shipment. please tell me how it would be fair to the seller(s) of those 3 cards, if i had decided to return them in november of 2012. what other business accepts returns on USED items a year later?

i am sure you will state the obvious, this is the exception, rather than the rule. however, it is the “exceptions” that will upset your customers, which are the sellers.

I have just dealt with a buyer on ebay asking for a refund for a damaged card. I of course got screwed on the deal. Hoping COMC don’t go this way. I will continue to send cards to COMC because I don’t have to worry about scams, please keep it that way. COMC charges a little more then ebay but I send my cards to you cats for the piece of mind that there safe. Futhermore after this latest refund I had to give I will no longer be listing high end cards on ebay, they protect the buyer way to much. Thanks Jason

Please Please Please take AAA’s suggestion. Sellers can choice to accept returns or not. You could even take it one step further and give us the option of how many days, from purchase of course not from shipment. These seems to be a idea we can all get on board with. Please don’t make it like ebay though, I don’t except returns on there but yet I seem to still have to. Makes little sense to have that button if that will be the case. Make it cut and dry either you do or you don’t. No grey area. Thanks

I ‘m ok with the return policy via Amazon due to the stock picture. But if its thru COMC they have a better pic and now your adding notes to the card. I don’t think if you grade a card for us as well it should be returned to us if it was declared Mint by you. Also same goes for graded cards those should be as is since the condition is known. The only other issue that is a problem with ebay goes to Hot cards some people will purchase a card to flip on ebay if that card doesn’t sell for the wanted price then they will try to return. Something needs to get added for that.

I have sent a detailed email to COMC and am waiting on the response. Another thing I thought of last night…coins… Gold and Silver prices change daily. As a seller I don’t want to have to worry about a $50 drop in gold value resulting in a return at less than market value. I know they aren’t accepting bullion now but still even with vintage gold coins. I also don’t want a guy buying up a bunch of Aaron Rodgers cards week one…having him go the way of Joe Theismann week 2 and then getting back a bunch of cards that are no longer worth anything near what they were when they were purchased,,,
I also pointed out… what constitutes owning the card ? I buy a 1973 Frank Howard card with the intent of getting it shipped in a few weeks. In the meantime I post it for sale to see if I can flip it. Does that void the return privilege?
I understand COMC not being able to absorb losses. However in a marketplace like this where money is free flowing having every transaction subject to a return weeks later is not going to give me confidence as a flipper or seller that the money I see in my account is really mine to spend.

Returns are part of the game! I have never sold on here but I have sold/traded several other places for cards and lots of other items. I have only had 1 return ever. And I have shipped a lot of things. And the buyer knew of the dinged corner (was a rarer card) but when they got it I guess it was worse then they thought. So it happens, but like with this site the cards are scanned pretty good (could be a little better, but much better then most places). I am not sure how things are packed on here for shipping as I have yet to have my order shipped. But good packing is another key to less returns. Because the post office honestly wont care much for what you are shipping or what it means to the person getting it or for that matter what its worth. UNLESS its insured! Because they don’t want to pay out on ANYTHING!! So they treat it like a gold bar. But there are also down falls to insuring something really pricy as it might get looked at by sticky fingers! I have shipped a handful for $1,000+ valued items. And if you do end up taking a loss on a $10 item, but you sold $1,000 worth of stuff thats not a hard hit to take. Now if it was $100 item and you only sold $150 then that would hurt. But I have also been on the buyer side of this a lot of times. I collect a lot more then just cards and I always have trouble with oddball type items. Stuff like mcfarlanes. They are perfect when I bought them, when I got them the box was crushed and so was whats in side. And somethings are 1 of a kind type item that just cant be replaced. Yea I might get a refund, but when its on a 1/1 it hurts. I had one get lost in them mail. I wanted the card wayyyy more then the money or I would have never bought it in the first place. And out of say 10 cases when I get something and its messed up its due to poor packing by the seller! Which on here the packer would be COMC. But I have had things come that were packed really well but it just looked like the PO ran it over with a truck. And when something like this happens the only person who wins is the PO. Seller gets back a damaged item (or nothing if it was lost), the buyer doesn’t get what they wanted (like when a 1/1 I needed got lost, or something damaged), but the PO got paid ether way. So if you get a return, you have to think that the buyer might have lost out as well! (all this is based on a honest buyer also!!) As for the scams or stuff along those lines, like trying to flip. That needs to be looked at VERY close. I have had a couple buyers try to pull a fast one on me. But I fight back and know I did everything 100% right on my end. But again, if the other person is not honest then there is not a lot that can be done. Anytime money or profit is to be had the honest way, there in the shadows is someone trying to score the easy way and less honest way. But the nice thing is there seem to be a ton more honest people then shady (at least when it comes to buying/selling etc online (didn’t used to be the case, anyone remember when it was at best 50-50 shot on ebay way back like 1998-2000ish on ebay?)). But there is a lot more to scamming in the card world then meets the eye. Fake cards. Fake patches. Fake autos. etc. Anyway, there does need to be a return policy (but it really does need some clear cut rules!) If it was a flip case or buyer changed there mind NO RETURN. If it was something like card comes bent in half, return. If it has a slight nick on the corner and you could see it in the pic no return (this is why a little better/bigger pics would be helpful). Not a huge deal to me as I buy cheaper cards and I don’t grade or try to flip them etc, but I could see where a dinged corner on a old vintage could be big. Hey a psa 9 might go for $50, but a psa 10 goes for $1,000! Maybe limit the time frame like say 30 days from the purchase of the card and it sitting in your acct you have to have it shipped or the return policy is void and the item is nonreturnable at that point. And once the item is shipped/delivered (I would hope orders are shipped with tracking/DC?) then you have 7 days to ship it back. And you have to have the tracking number uploaded with in the 7 days to have it under the policy. Though it might take 10-12 days to get back. After that 7 day window its yours and no returns. Also look very close at people who do returns, like a case by case deal. Did they buy 25 cards of a hot player at the time and then return them after the team lost the big game? That would be a no return case to me! Also maybe a restocking fee (like buyer remorse type deal), that way COMC gets a little back for the hassle as well as the seller. Say 20-25% of the price, would make people think a little more before they just impulse buy, I can tell you that for sure. Maybe a minimum for a return. Like $5+. Could be $5 card or 5 $5 cards. Something like that. Who wants to mess with returning a $1 item anyway, you will spend more to ship it back, and thats a lot of time on COMC end for next to no money! Maybe COMC could cross check sites to weed out flipped being able to return, due to not being able to flip! Like maybe by seller name or pretty easy if its like a 1/1 or something like that. Maybe a program could be made that once a item is sold it would be auto-entered into the system and the system checks other major sites like ebay and if it gets a hit back then it makes a record, and if a item comes up for return then it is checked against that data base and if its on that list its a NO RETURN! VERY good idea to me! And after the time limit then the file of that say is like listed in bold red as a no return, aka no return list. But I have went on and on, so im done. There is several thoughts there………

Jrock. great post! I love some of the ideas in there! more explanation is really needed on time frames, etc, flipping, holding, hot players going cold, new sets, etc. buyers abusing the system hoping to get get high grades and don’t, or they are trying to resell somewhere and cannot and just want to return the cards.
Also what has comc been doing with the returns up to this point? have they been resold? Do they just die off? are they in the employees ports and do they get new item numbers?